Crossing into China

Our group of students and teachers was met at the local train station by a young woman named Adilah from the travel agency Dragonfly. She would be spending the week with us including the border crossing and our twelve-hour train trip to Yangshuo.

We rode the local Hong Kong train all the way to its northern-most stop which brought us to within walking distance of the Chinese border. But first, we had to get out of Hong Kong. I swiped my high-tech Hong Kong i.d. card and put my finger on the scanner to confirm that I was actually me. Annika was right behind me.

Beep.

Beep.

We were out of Hong Kong.

But we had yet to get into China.

We walked through an enclosed walkway that spanned a midsized river. On the Chinese side of the river was a wall topped with barbed wire.

Annika and I were walking side-by-side. As we neared the mid-section of the covered walkway, we both slowed our pace. At the midpoint we each took one big, dramatic step. We looked at each other. “Welcome to China,” she said to me.

We still had to get through Chinese immigration.

We cued up at Chinese immigration careful to follow the posted instructions not to step across the yellow line until summoned to do so. After presenting our passports, one-by-one, we were all waved in.

We had made it into China.

We did a head count. We had all nineteen students.

-Jack